Do it yourself

Here is one for you to contemplate - I still do. I worked for a commercial photographic firm here in Utah. We were a well known local firm that was in business since 1890. Not 1980, not a typo. We were also one of the oldest Eastman Kodak dealers in existence. I ran this custom lab, and we processed hundreds of rolls of film per day, at times. Not to mention everything else, from extremely large format black and white sheet film like Cirkit and Banquet sizes, to glass plates, and hundreds of thousands of feet of 5 and 10 inch aerial film. All roll sizes were processed in large ceramic deep tanks, using racks and hangers; sheet and plates in smaller hard rubber tanks. All prints were washed for an hour in a Pako drum. Vast numbers of prints went through our labs every month, from 3-1/2 x 5 prints to murals. With absolutely no interruption, our lab ran Monday through Saturday, 10 am to 8 PM, nonstop, since 1890. Never in our history did we attempt to recover a single speck of silver from our solutions. Not ever. I wonder to this day how much money we lost because we did not recover silver. All effluents were dumped into the sewer system. Our solid material traps would clog monthly, and copper scouring pads would heavily plate with silver. Tons of this sludge was dumped. I am betting we lost a literal fortune in silver, especially when the silver costs were so high. I think we probably dumped far more than a ton of silver. Bob